A girl who fell from the sky

It all happened in 1971. Julianne and her mother were supposed to fly to Pucallpa before the Christmas Eve, but because of the high school graduation ceremony, they decided to go there on 24th. At about 11am they got into the plane.

After a half an hour of boring flight, the plane flew into a huge thunderstorm. All that she could see were lightning flashes and things that were falling from overhead lockers. People screamed and cried as the plane started to shake violently. She describes herself as disorientated and terrified, as the plane began to nosedive. She remembers that she was still strapped into her seat when she fell of the plane at the attitude of about 10,000 feet. At first she didn’t realize that she was the only survivor. She found herself alone in the Peruvian rainforest. After regaining consciousness, she started to look for a help. Although she had broken her collarbone, she knew that she could not give up. As her parents used to take her on their scientific expeditions, she knew how to survive in the jungle. 

After a few days, she found a rivulet and started to follow it. She knew that finding a river was crucial to find help. Each night she had to find a safe spot to sleep in. She ate only the things that she knew that were not poisonous. When finally she found a river, she had to swim for a long time. Finally, she found a boat. Although there were no people inside, she knew that she had reached the safety. The next day, some forestry workers found her in the shelter on the hill, near the boat.

If you want to know more, watch Werner Herzog's documentary film Wings of Hope !

Life is Strange

Times have changed... 

Nowadays kids prefer to stay at home rather than play hide and seek in the backyard or to build castles in the sandpit. Now all that kids want is... to play computer games. And I'm not surprised. 

People have created games that are so realistic that we sometimes forget that's just a game! With a lot of details, beautiful characters, huge open spaces, and interesting storylines. When we play, we find ourselves in a totally different world. What else could we want?

I could tell you all about Shadow of Colossus (still in love with this game), Silent Hill series (almost died of a heart attack while playing), Witcher III (really proud that it's Polish!) or Bloodborne (although sometimes I truly hated this game, I would still come back to play it), and other well-known games, but today I wanted to tell you about the one that's called  Life is Strange.

What if you could change the past?

                                     

Life is Strange tells us a story of a teenage girl called Max, who after a five year absence returns to her hometown, Arcadia Bay, to attend a photography class. Soon she realizes that there's something wrong going on in the town. While being a witness of a tragic incident in the school's bathroom, Max discovers that she has the power to rewind time. 

Basically, it's a story of a true friendship between Max and Chloe. 

Life Is Strange is a five part episodic game that sets out to revolutionise story based choice and consequence games by allowing the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future.

I highly recommend you to play it!

Peace for Paris

When I heard the news I was shocked. This time it's different. The attack didn't take place somewhere far away from me, or, like Charlie Hebdo shooting, it was not aimed to a specific group of people. They were shooting to random people. 

I just keep on wondering how many of them went out just to celebrate something, or were just coming back home from work, or went to buy milk. Or those who just went to a concert. But, seriously, why? A rock/metal concert?!

I just can't imagine how terrifying it must have been for those who live in Paris. 

Peace for Paris... Although "peace" didn't do much since the attack on Charlie. Maybe we should better say "Fight back, Paris"? 
Maybe this time something will change, maybe they will realise that if they take part in a war, they should pay more attention to who comes to France, and who already live there.

 

"I think if one person loves something enough it can never be obsolete"

Time goes by so fast. No. Correction. Time goes by TOO fast. 

The older I get the more I realise how fast everything around me changes. Sometimes the change is good. If we think about medicine, every advance is one step closer to understandig how human body works, or how to cure illnesses that are still black magic to us. 

But if we think about or daily life, all those things, like smartphones or tablets, are unnecessary. It amuses me when I sit in one place surrounded by people, and I keep on starring at them, but no one realises, cuz they're so busy playing with their phones.  What happened with the concept that phone is for calling? What was wrong with the typewriters, landline telephones (I loved to play with those!) or cassettes? 

Ever feel like the whole world is disappearing? Species by species, technology by technology everything you know and love is becoming obsolete.

One of the most beautiful movies that I've ever seen, "Obselidia" tells us a story of a lonely librarian, George, who is creating The Obselidia, an encyclopedia of obsolete things.

I highly recommend you to watch it.

Łauma by KaeReL

A little girl, named Dorothy, moves from a big city to live in Łojmy, a small village situated in the heart of Suwałki Landscape Park. Although at first Dorothy and her family goes to Łojmy just to visit her grandmother, when they get to the place it turns out that the grandmother have died in suspicious circumstances. After the funeral, the family decides to stay in the village for good. They realise that they have not been happy living in a big city and the father decides that he wants to stay in the countryside.

Despite a few inconveniences, they start to enjoy living in a small cabin near the forest. 

And everything would be perfect if one time the father of Dorothy wouldn't kill the snake which was living in the cabin, under the dresser... 

This is how the comic book "Łauma" begins. The comic book, written by Karol "KaeReL" Kalinowski awarded by The International Festival of Comics and Games in Lódź as the best Polish comic book of the year. 

The comic book Łauma combines humour, fantastic elements and moments of true horror. And all of it is placed in a world surrounded by old beliefs and legends of Yotvingians.

One of many hobbies: aquarium

Lesson one:

The most important thing to start with is to set our aquarium in the right place. You should keep it out of the direct sunlight, in a peaceful corner of the room, so that people moving around it wouldn't scare the inhabitants. Of course there are many fish that look astonishing when they are in the direct sunlight, but when the tank is close to the window the possibility of algae growth rises. 

For beginners there is a strict advice not to buy any tanks lesser than 60 liters! The smaller ones are harder to keep in stability, and are not suitable for many species of aquarium fish. Of course if we want to own bigger and territorial fish that may be aggressive (such as most cichlids for example) the tank must be bigger. 

There are several types of aquarium filters you can choose from, all of which need to be cleaned on regular bases, with the “living” water from the tank, so that the bacteria living inside the filter do not perish, putting us back to the beginning, risking the life and health of our fish. From my experience the most practical and efficient type of filter is the external canister filter, which are a little more expensive, but you don’t have to clean them that often, and due to the size of their exterior, they provide the biggest setting for the nitrobacter. A canister filter is irreplaceable in larger tanks, but it is always good to have a back-up filter in case something goes wrong. 

Palomas

As I'm learning Spanish, I would really love to listen to Spanish music all the time. But it's not so easy for me, as I'm not really fond of pop music. I found some rock bands that are pretty good, like Fito y Fitipaldis (a group which is from Bilbao!)

This song reminds me a lot of my Spanish friend from Andalucia who simply loved this song.

I also have a few random songs that I adore. Like this one:

Chavela Vargas was one of the most important Mexican singers. The lyrics, her voice and the way how the song goes - from the quiet tone of voice to scream - are simply amazing.


The second one that I wanted to mention has also a paloma in the lyrics. Well-know one, especially from the movie Hable con ella.

This song has a lot of different versions. The other one that I like is of Julio Iglesias and Nana Mouskouri, but it is available in poor quality, so I won't put it here.

Do you know any other bands/songs that you could recommend me?

Polpo ubriaco

I'm not that kind of person who puts thousands of pictures of food. I can't understand why people do that. "Oh, today I ate that...and now I'm going to eat that...and tomorrow...". They think that someone may find it interesting? But don't get me wrong, I refer to those posts on facebook.

I do love sites with recipes, although I'm not really good at cooking (read: I prefer eating than cooking). A few weeks ago I found this brilliant recipe for octopus.
Polpo ubriaco (drunk octopus) is really easy to make.

Looks really tasty, doesn't it?:)
There are a few ways how to "prepare" your octopus so that it wouldn't be tough and chewy. The easiest way is to freeze it for about 48hours.
You can also asustar el pulpo (to scare octopus) - put the octopus in the boiling water and then immediately take it out, and repeat this process 5 times (remember that each time water has to boil).

You can see the full recipe here:

http://worldrecipes.expo2015.org/en/recipe-octopus_with_red_wine_436.html

Louie

If you like stand-ups, I highly recommend you this guy! Not all of his performances are equally good, but some parts of his shows are really great:)

And something about the difference between girls and boys;)

One of his biggest influences was George Carlin. Carlin's performances were filled with highly cynical, sometimes even dark, but always intelligent humour with a judgemental approach towards reality.

8 tracks

Great site with music. For those who don't want to/can't pay spotify, it is a great alternative:)
It's a site where people put their playlist. At first it supposed to be a playlist made of 8 tracks, but now you can find some that last for hours.
You can find music by genre, tag or simply by writing one's group name (in that case you'll probably find some other groups that are similar to the first one).

Here is one that I like a lot

http://8tracks.com/yana_monp/i-can-see-through-you

Perfect for a calm evening

When people lose their patience

Have any of you seen the movie "Relatos Salvajes"? I remember that when I saw the poster I thought: "omg... just not another REC movie...." And because it reminded me of this terrible movie called "Genesis" it took me a while to go to the cinema to see Szifrón's film.

Wild Tales is made of six different stories that are linked by common themes. 

"Catharsis, vengeance and destruction... and the undeniable pleasure of losing control".

It's about ordinary people who have been pushed to their limits, people who had enough of injustice and pretending that everything was fine. 
It's about people who have lost their patience. 
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could scream at your boss without thinking about all the consequences? Without worrying that you'll get fired and you will not be able to find another job? Just to let your emotions out...
But you know that you can't do that. 
We have this quiet voice in our heads that whispers us "you can't do that! what will society think of you?"
The fun part of this movie is that the characters don't care anymore. 

I remember that a few days after I saw this movie I found out about the Germanwings plane that has been deliberately flown into the mountain by the co-pilot. I was shocked. The first thought was "Pasternak!"

Wanna know why? Watch the movie!

Few days ago...

I believe that reading this short sentence was the best way for me to find out about the sad news.

"It is with immeasurable sadness that we announce that author Sir Terry Pratchett has died." 

I think that after reading this, in everyone's mind who have read and liked his books, appeared more or less the same picture:

Everyone knew that Terry was sick, but somehow he made us forget that. He kept on 

smilling and writing books so I believed that he had still a lot of time. 

But Death decided to surprise us. 

Discworld

 I don't really like fantasy books. I'm not interested in stories about vampires, witches, magic powers etc. But Terry Pratchett created other type of fantasy. It's fantasy that reflects reality.

Each story is set up on a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which are in turn standing on the back of a giant turtle, the Great A'Tuin. 

Discworld is absolutely amazing. I just love how Terry Pratchett sees the world. There is always a good measure of comedy along with a good story in his books.

You definitely won't find here boredom. 

Death is my favorite character from the Discworld series. He's brilliant because of his bewildered fascination with the living creatures. In his fondness of the human world he decides to copy a piece of it for him to inhabit. Being Death and all he lacks the ability to use all variable colours and sticks with black, white and shades of grey. He turns out to be a really sympathetic and chilling figure, fond of cats and curry.

“YOU FEAR TO DIE?
"It's not that I don't want... I mean, I've always...it's just that life is a habit that's hard to break...”
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

“Nightmares are usually rather daft things and it’s very hard to explain to a listener what was so dreadful about your socks coming alive or giant carrots jumping out of the hedgerows.” 

Terry Pratchett, Eric

My birthday resolution

I hate birthdays... okay, maybe I should say that I love gifts but I hate the fact that I'm getting older. People are always asking me why am I so sad on my birthdays and I'm really tired of explaining them something so obvious. On this particular day I just wonder if the past year was meaningful, fascinating, do I live my life to the fullest?  

Like most of the people I'm too lazy, too tired, I complain a lot and I'm not self-confident to try and do the things that I really want. 

We are not getting any younger.

So I've decided that each year on my birthday I will do something, that I've never done before.

Good idea, don't you think?

This year, thanks to my boyfriend, I went to the shooting range. As my father was a police chief, he used to keep his gun in our house. I was always curious about it, but I knew that I can't touch it (too many stories about poor children who died while playing with a gun). So two days ago I finally got to try it. I have to say that...it was amazing! I was very excited, but at the same time, really scared. I knew that it's not a toy, that I could actually hurt somebody, or myself, if wouldn't pay attencion. 

For those who have ever thought about it, I really recommend it!

Live music

I remember when I was about ten years old, I went with my sister to the bar in our village where all the young folks were always gathering. We used to hang out there a lot, especially in the part of the bar that was built on a tree. This one day, we met a homeless drunk who was reeking of alcohol and sweat, so we decided to go home. But all of a sudden he started to talk about music. I will never forget when he said "Nowdays people don't understand music, for them it's just something that entertains them while they are working. They don't understand the music. The true music is the one that makes your body shiver." 

Couldn't agree more.

Yesterday I went to the Poznań Philharmonic for the first time. I've always wanted to go there, especially to hear Rahmaninov piano concert live, but I thought that it was too expensive for a poor student like me. I was shocked when my boyfriend gave me tickets for my birthday that cost only 20zł! So we went to the concert called "Love a la butterfly".

The Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, leaded by Eiji Oue, a famous japanese conducter, began the concert with the Rapshody for Orchestra by Yuzo Toyama. 

                                       

We were really surprised to hear such a dynamic music. Even the older people were slightly shaking their heads to the melody:) I immediately fell in love with the conducter. He was full of energy and happiness (for me, it looked like he was dancing, not conducting). In the second part called "The Butterfly Lovers" the leading instrument was played by a chinese violinist Xiaoming Wang. This part of the concert was based on a Chinese lengend of a tragic love story of a pair of lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. The violin was representing the woman, and the cello - man. It was simply amazing how well they played. In the third part they performed Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 

At the end of the concert the audience just couldn't stop clapping and whistling. The conducter was forced to come back on the stage. While they were playing again one part of Yuzo Toyama's Rapshody, Eiji Oue was conducing not only the orchestra, but also the audience:) He walked through the hall with a big smile on his face and proudly put on himself some kind of japanese coat. 

Beautiful Icelandic music

I've always wanted to go to Iceland. I think it's because of the Icelandic music that created in my mind this beautiful image of land of peace, calm and good people. If I would have to describe Iceland, I would say that it's magic, although I've never been there. 

                                      

I can't say that Múm is well-known band. Actually, I have to admit that I know only the album "Finally we are no one". I fell in love with this band because of the vocalist, Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, and her soft and a little bit childish voice. 

Sigur Ros - probably the best icelandic band ever. Half of people will find them boring, while the other half will get chills while listening to their music. 

Amiina will always remind me of my sister. I will never forget the day that we were making video based on this song. She had to make one for her studies, and I was forced to be the main actress. 

For those who like to travel

I'm probably not the best person to give advice to anyone, but I believe that you can learn something from my mistakes:)

1. If you ask for direction, do not depend on one person's opinion. You HAVE to ask someone else. The first one can be mistaken and you can end up 50km away from your destination point. 

2. If your plain is delayed, do not depend on what some flight attendant tells you. For example: he/she can tell you that the plain will be delayed two hours, and when you will come back (supposedly on time) it can turn out that your plain is no longer there. [in my case, the same flight attendant told me that I could hitchhike from Spain to Poland...]

3. If you're in a party somewhere in a foreign city, do not go home alone. You will probably get lost trying to figure out the way that leads to your hotel/hostel/home. And if it's late, don't ask some random people for the direction - at 2 a.m. it's a big possibility that you will come across some weird and dangerous people. 

4. If you're on a trip and you forgot to book a room, remember that you can always use internet and find a place where they still have free rooms. If, unfortunately, you can't find any and it's getting late and really cold outside, don't panic. Try to find hostel (which is at least on the second floor) go inside, make sure that there's no room left, and go to the attic - you can sleep safely there. 

5. Do not try to make apple fritters with purple corn flour - it tastes REALLY bad